well, i’m determined to keep myself from being an entire year behind on blogging – here i am in november 2021 posting about december 2020! i’m under a total mountain of photos to narrow down, edit, organise and upload and i’m excited to catch up. we’ve been in complete survival mode for so long but i’m determined to make time for blogging because i love having this family record so much.

so here’s some photos and memories from our countdown to christmas 2020!

gabriel was a wise man in his joy school nativity play (which was the cutest thing ever – miss that awesome group of kiddos and moms!):

christmas jumper day at school for mo (i loved that he was so into posing for these photos!):

sleeping, growing babies // thanking my lucky stars that gabriel was so good at independent play while i breastfed the twins so often:

had to snap a photo of how sweet gabriel looked every night cuddled up in bed with all his “guys” // tummy time x2! (still can’t believe there’s *two* of them!)

august and eve’s first time going to church! (so exciting to be able to go back, masked and distanced, after months and months of no church due to the pandemic)

bringing a box full of toys to the church for a donations drive, and visiting a statue of baby jesus and resurrected jesus while there:

a spot of perfectly pink christmas in chelsea, and some gorgeous doorsteps around our kensington neighbourhood:

we went to see santa at gunnersbury park! it was a perfectly lovely, distanced pandemic santa meet-up. we got to see a unique father christmas, who explained why he had green robes instead of red (of course i can’t remember the reason now, though!) and gave the boys little gifts. moses and gabriel were starstruck and thrilled.

i got this terrible photo of the babies at their first visit with santa (sorry you are totally swallowed by your snowsuit, august!). it was just pretty chaotic with all four kids and trying to take photos and not take up more time than we were allotted and etc. i even had them in cute matchy christmas outfits, haha! better luck next year. before our visit with the big man, we wandered around the christmas market in the park, and bought this perfect wreath:

and after we played for hours in the cold at the playground with all of our best friends. it was such a great day – love these people dearly.

a “mr. grinch” family move night // a moment when i had to snap a photo of auggie totally sacked out:

absolutely loved coming home to our tree glittering in the window – it gave me a thrill every single time. we hoped that it gave a little cheer to passerbys, too // having our traditional aebleskiver dinner on st. lucia day (we guess what filling is in each pancake ball and tell the amazing story of st. lucia):

some spotted and snapshotted christmas magic around the neighbourhood:

on christmas, moses said to august and eve, “babies, you’re our best present, you’re our best present!” indeed.

one morning i ran the babies to this house i had seen pictures of on instagram. whoever lives here *wins*! what a spectacular display – i absolutely adored it (if you can’t tell from all the photos…):

another shot of the festive exterior of our flat // we completed another craft wall just before christmas!:

august and eve, 2.5 months old:

some shots from an evening out as a family checking out a little fun fair and taking in all the amazing christmas displays in mayfair … it was super chaotic and we were a complete circus. but it was awesome.

tube ride home, with the last bits of bedtime wiggles coming out:

ian. is. a. c*h*a*m*p … this is what many of his work meetings looked like in november and december:

a day at the zoo with friends once christmas break from school started:

gabriel’s sweetest face that i just had to capture // moses picking out something spectacular at the zoo shop with the money he worked hard to earn and save:

matching christmas pajamas! can’t believe we have four kids to put in matching christmas pajamas!

full hands … and full, full heart:

at this age, august was super vocal, especially around bedtime. every night ian and i would sit by the christmas tree and just delight in all of his darling coos, usually accompanied by stellar smiles.

one day i took all four kids on a walking adventure to see the decorations in chelsea. we were quite the sight coming down the streets of london – a gaggle of small children and one mom just really trying her best. we got a lot of interesting looks from those we passed by, haha! it was so fun to spot the baubles and lights and glitter with the boys and the babies were snug and content most of the time.

brother bear:

sister girl:

little christmas elves! (before and after i found a bow for eve…):

swinging in the garden on christmas eve eve:

basically wearing this huge twin breastfeeding pillow most of the time, and cherishing post-milk cuddles when i was able // finally got up the nerve to put presents under the tree the day before christmas eve (and nothing got ripped open early!):

next up: christmas eve and christmas day! it was certainly a christmastime to remember with two preschoolers and two tiny babies in our little london flat.